Happy Friday! I need this weekend more than ever!1.Sandra Bullock adopted a precious baby! The baby boy, named Louis, is from New Orleans and has been in her home since January! Her and stupidface Jesse James began the adoption process together years ago, and decided to keep things under wraps until after the Oscars. Now that her idiot ex husband is out of the picture, she's going to raise the little handsome guy by herself. She also plans to continue being a stepmom to Jesse's kids. Hi, she's almost to sweet for me to like her. Almost.
2. Arizona immigration reform = huge mess. The state of Arizona has passed a law that allows police to ask anyone they even suspect of being an illegal immigrant to show their "papers" at any time. Racial profiling much? I agree that border control is an issue, but this seems pretty much as anti- "America-the-land-of-the-free" as you can get. What if you walk down the block to your friend's house without your wallet? Grounds for arrest if they think you could have snuck into America. WTF? Shakira, who I could have been in a past life, has joined the fight. AMEN. People are up in arms all over the country, even going so far as to boycott Arizona tea beverages (which are actually made in New Jersey). Whole cities have boycotted the entire state (I don't really get that) and Al Sharpton is in the mix (yikes!). I hope they repeal it and think of a better idea. Don't ask me what that is, I just write a nonsensical blog for a hobby.
3.Jessica Simpson has a dirty mouth. Literally. She admitted on the Ellen Degeneres show that she only brushes her teeth "maybe three times a week" because they're so white that when they're clean they are too slippery. WTF? Also she prefers to use a "shirt or something" to clean them when she actually does it. (Insert obligatory "maybe this is why she can't get a boyfriend" comment here.) Gross. Gross. Gross. I just can't root for her. She's a major idiot. Wait, remind me why she's famous anymore? I wonder if she was on this regime when John Mayer referred to her as "sexual napalm."Ick. They deserve each other.
4.Last week there was a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and it may reach land today! This is a terrible thing. They think the spill covers 600 square miles of ocean. The spill was caused by an explosion on an offshore BP oil rig. 11 men have gone missing and this massive spill is seriously threatening to eff stuff up. This is a mostly a major environmental issue, but also has serious political and economic impact. YIKES! It breaks my heart. I saw this commercial yesterday and it was cute, but sad:
They better get lots of Dawn up in there. Looks like they may be needing it. Go buy some!
5. Quote(s) of the week:

Ok, enough is enough. I love SATC, but come on, knee replacements? These women are too old to be making these movies. I thought the menopause talk in the last move was pushing it. I'll obviously still be seeing it opening weekend. Sidenote: she'll be singer a cover of Single Ladies in the movie. That's reason enough to see it..

"I'd be perfectly fine if I never saw the color pink again." —Molly Ringwald

This sent me into a fit of rage. I love the brat pack and all their 80's cinematic glory. ESPECIALLY PRETTY IN PINK. I hate when people bite the hand that feeds them (I'm talking to you, Kristen Stewart). The topic of the article was to name 25 things about herself we might not know. She just HAD to insert a "look at me I have this whole other successful life" comment.
6.Kate Hudson got a boob job. She debuted them on the red carpet this week but wore a full-coverage dress. (Huh?) I'm sort of disappointed in her. While she remains a flooze-tastic and philandering idiot when it comes to dating, she wore her 12-year old girl bust proudly. I always gave her a little bit of credit for never getting on the plastic surgery bandwagon. Guess that's over. On a related note, Spencer Pratt clearly disapproves of her not getting mega-breasts. I'm so glad he's chiming in.
7.Bret Michaels is in the hospital in serious condition. He's suffered a brain hemorrhage and remains in ICU. He's been in the hospital a week now and is responding well to treatment, but this situation is no joke. I hope he gets better soon. I'm right on the verge of writing off VH1 programming altogether and I'm going to need him around if they want to keep me as a viewer. I wonder if anybody saw what's under his bandanna. I suspect is a balding middle-aged man's head. In all seriousness, I pray for his recovery.
8.The economy may not totally suck any more. *May not. Economists are reporting the third straight quarter of GDP growth! Yay! They think that this means the recession was officially over sometime in the middle of last year. Funny, it still feel like everyone's broke to me. Anyway, this is good news and the glimmer of hope that we'll all be fat and happy again is a bit brighter.
Have a great weekend. Stay tuned tomorrow for a wrap up of my April Resolutions!

I was getting my morning news on this morning and this caught my eye:I'm pretty sure the intention of this was to sell me a coat. Little did the advertising geniuses know, the poodle clearly caused me to click on a sidebar ad. Something I NEVER do. (Side note: who knew Lord & Taylor still existed? I didn't.)
That got me thinking about poodles in fashion photography. I'm obviously all for it. I found a few weird things...
One trend: COLORS. What the hell is this about? I'm not a fan of dying a live animal a color it shouldn't be. It even irks me when they have painted hermit crabs at pet stores.
Beautiful Doris Day in 1952. The colored poodles bother me when I think too much about it, but I love this picture.Joan Collins, another icon. It gives me the giggles that when this was taken in 1955, the photo and her nightgown were probably so risque. This one is an ad from London supporting some kind of "go green" campaign. Going green and walking your dog outside is definitely something I support, but did the dog have to be such an offensive and non-natural color?
Another trend: Poodle as a runway companion. I'm not against this, but sort of don't understand. I'm too distracted to look at the clothes.
A live animal is probably the only thing you could throw into the mix to take eyes off of this super skimpy swimsuit.This model has clearly never picked up dog poop. And if she plans to, she may need to re-think this outfit. Just a tip.Oh and also, what dog is supposed to fit in her carrier? Not that one.
And then there is this (click here for a better resolution):
Yes, that is a person acting like a dog. And popping out of a purse. And being disciplined with a newspaper. WTF?
Welcome to my Thursday distraction. Happy almost weekend!

No new post today. I'm in a dark space. Nothing bad has happened, just the cube life is just really beating down my spirit. My workday has been overwhelming enough for me to just lay my head on the desk.
No blog good can come of this.
Promise to be back peppy and wittier than ever tomorrow.

This weekend I ate a dog treat. Judge me, I dare you.
I want to tell this story from the beginning....Since I got the Prince, he's been totally uninterested in dog treats, or food in general. He has a prissy little palate and really has never been motivated by edible things. This has proven to be extremely frustrating in his training. If you can't incentivize the little guy, how do you make him do anything? Many times, even people food (bacon, chicken, steak) doesn't even excite him. I'd toss him a little table scrap and he'd bat it around, not even nibbling it a bit. If I tried to make him do anything with piece of food, you could almost hear his little brain thinking...."I'd much rather not go into that crate than have that snack. Try again, sucker." ARRRRG.
Months ago the vet gave me a sample of these treats called Charlee Bears. The only ingredients are: Wheat Flour, Liver (poultry liver preserved naturally with vitamin E), Salt (1 tablespoon per 100 pounds) and Garlic Powder. They're also hideous looking.
I never dreamed they'd work, so I threw them in the box of poodle supplies and forgot all about them.
Recently I've gotten the urge to work on his discipline and tricks, but had to find a treat to make him do stuff for. So, expecting failure, I pulled out the Charlee Bears and.... the Prince goes absolutely STUPID for them. I can make him juggle, do gymnastics, solve long division problems and perform a tap dance to get one. It's so WEIRD how he'd prefer these little oyster cracker-ish things to steak. I guess that's why the vet went to vet school...to know more than me. In addition to being highly effective, they're only 3 calories each, so he can eat 3489395839851 in one day and still remain handsome and trim. JACKPOT. I went out and bought a value-sized bag.
Clearly, I've been dying to know why these work so well. So, this weekend, I posed this question to some of my best pals. In a moment of compromised clarity, one guy from the group, Bill, agreed to eat 4 of them for a dollar. Bill is one of the Prince's best friends and probably would have eaten them for free. Here's Bill and the transaction going down.
His face wasn't even disgusted! He said they tasted just like Goldfish! Goldfish! That was it this whole time??!?!
I, of course, did not believe this and ate one for myself. They are indeed, EXACTLY LIKE GOLDFISH, except crunchier and a little less cheesy. I cannot believe it! This totally baffles me, but nevertheless, the Prince is becoming a veritable one-man stage show with the help of Charlee Bears. And, if worse comes to worse, I know I could munch on them in a crisis. Win-Win!

Have any of you ever been to a rap concert? If you're answer is yes, then you'll know what I'm talking about...
This weekend Manfriend and I sojourned to our favorite old stomping grounds, Austin,TX, to attend a Bone Thugs-n-Harmony concert. If you can't recall, they're responsible for this little gem (among a multitude of others):
It was a super fun time. We got to hang around with some of our best buddies and had pretty good seats:
Rap concerts are so strange. Maybe it's just the non-gansta in me, but it's like no other musical experience I've had. First of all, very little of the performance was actually live. I think they lip synced through their greatest hits. No big deal, I'd rather enjoy their various tracks in their pure studio-produced form.
Then, there were a lot of time-wasting things. They did a MJ tribute, and a Biggie tribute, AND a Tupac tribute. By "tribute" I mean they played snipets of their songs and yelled some rap over it. Not particularly artfully done, but hilarious. Then, there was a variety of "rep yo city" crowd participation things. To top it off, they brought 50 women from the audience up on stage to out-sluttydance each other (that could have been an audition for the after party). Manfriend was not amused by me trying to get up there. Of course, sprinkled throughout were several Hennessy and weed breaks. Then, all of a sudden, it was just over. There was no climactic big finish. I think they just decided they weren't sober enough to go on. See they eyes of "Layzie Bone" to see what I mean:
I left there with a burning question: why can they just blatantly smoke drugs on the stage for all to see? I get the crowd members that try to sneak the reefer on the down low, but just right up there for our viewing enjoyment? They really took part in the herb. I don't get that. Isn't it still a crime?
Anyway, despite all the negativity that might've just come through in my voice, it was a super fun time. The posse I was with was primo, the beers were cheap and there was a full-on rap circus on stage. Talk about a recipe for amazing. Here's us girls doing our most gangsta faces.
Yes that's me in the waspy florals showing my grill.
Its a new week, hope you enjoy it thoroughly!

Happy Friday! Hope you're all ready to seriously get yo weekend on.
1. A UK Zoo has obtained 3 Mangalitza "sheep-pigs." This rare breed is a curly-coated pig used to be a mainstay in the UK but disappeared sometime in the 1970's. Evolutionarily, they became coated to stay warm and protect from sunburn. I'm totally fascinated.
Today our dialogue in the office has been this: "Question: Could you shave them to create a sweater then slaughter them for bacon?" My answer is yes. I don't see why you couldn't wear and eat this little piggy. That kind of reminds me of learning about how the Indians used to use every single part of the buffalo for something. Maybe this is our modern-day buffalo? I really just want these animals not to have to die at all. They're way cuter than normal pigs.
2. Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon are getting married for the third time! They've announced that their two-year anniversary is coming up and they'll be renewing their vows again. Easy lovebirds, you don't necessarily have to keep trying to prove that this marriage isn't a sham. (Or maybe you do?). Half of me is sickened by this, the other half is reassured that love is out there for everyone. If this pair can make it work, anybody can. Nick will be buying her another diamond ring and "It’ll be something different. Something good."
3. Sam Bradford, a dumb Soooner, (aka University of Oklahoma player) was the first pick in the 2010 NFL draft. The Longhorn in me is conditioned to despise all things OU. He probably should be the top choice, but I'm no less irritated. Oklahoma had 4 players picked in the first round, and 3 of them were in the top 4! BOOOOOOOOO. Either way, one Texas boy, Earl Thomas went to the Seattle Seahawks in the first round. The Big 12 Conference was well represented, with 9 total players going int he first round. Great job, us! I'm still waiting for my precious Colt McCoy to get picked. Hopefully in the 2nd...
4. Early tests are proving that a Nicotine vaccine could someday work to prevent people from smoking! The drug, called NicVAX has shown early promise in ridding smokers of their addition. Nicotine is related to nearly half a million deaths in the U.S. each year, so this is a huge revelation! On a related note, the CDC is urging states to coordinate their anti-smoking bans. I'm not sure that outlawing is exactly the right approach, but I'm a fan. I hate when I come home from a night of debaucherizing reeking of ashtray. Dry cleaning bill and hairwashing are the result for me. Boo. I hope this NicVAX thing works out, everybody wins!
5. Quote of the week:

Ugh. She's such a serious actress that when she's in character as a cheater she has the real life guilt of a cheater. Bite me. Why didn't she just say "I grabbed as many handfuls of those abs and arms as I could, and it was AWESOME," like she undoubtedly was actually thinking. No, she wants to be taken serious y'all.
6. Katy Perry wore the most awesome shoes of all time. THEY LIGHT UP! It was a red-carpet event, the annual American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers awards, so she took it upon herself to go for the extra sparkliness of actual illumination. I love them. They remind me of those L.A. Gear Lights Shoes from elementary school. She's so cool.
Have a super duper weekend! I'll be in Austin gettin' my party on with some of my best friends. If you were wondering if I have tickets to see Bone Thugz-n-Harmony live in concert, the answer is YES.

Hey guys, its Earth Day, did you know that? I think Earth Day is a cool thing and this year I haven't seen much hype about it. Boo. But, it's also the first time I haven't spent it in Austin,TX.
Earth Day was founded in 1970 by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson (Gaylord...hehehe). That's him below. I wonder why he's in that middle school sports portrait pose? Anyway, it's the 40th anniversary this year! Thanks Gaylord! I wonder if he had any clue how hip "going green" would be in more recent years. I bet he knew that we had no way to go but down when it comes to burning up our atmosphere and maxing out all the landfills.
On the topic of greeniness, I found this story, which reports that people all over the world are using special stationary bicycles to raise awareness of the importance of energy conservation. Pedaling the bike creates electricity that can be used to run devices. At a homeless shelter in Detroit they have the hobos pedaling their little hearts out to generate power for the building. While this is an innovative idea to me, it seems a little odd to force possibly the least threatening of energy consumers to do the hard work. They don't even own lights. And, do they need the workout? Don't have not have food? The bikes don't produce enough electricity to be anything more than a teaching/publicity opportunity, but the homeless, really?
Anyway, I encourage all of you to participate in Earth Day in your own little way by doing a green thing. Wherever you shake down on the whole true/false of climate change, there's no harm in giving ole mother Earth a pat on the back today. Try to take a speedy shower. Or turn off electrical devices you don't actually need.
My normal green routine includes using non-throwaway lunchbox, coffee thermos, water bottle and grocery bags. There's a lot of Earth friendliness happening at my desk today, but of course the totally unnecessary desk lamp illuminating this photo is rarely not turned on. Nuts.
I could work on a few things, like shower length (tough...that's when I get most of my best thinking done), using re-usable Tupperware versus Ziploc baggies and recycling more at home. They also say hat unplugging electrical things when you aren't using them goes a long way too. Stuff like chargers, coffee pot, switched off flatiron/hairdryer/curlers, etc. I could stand to be better at that too.
Anyway, Happy Earth Day! Be nice to our planet today (and hopefully everyday). You can't live without her!

Most days I peruse the various offerings on New York Magazine's website. There, I find a happy variety of political, world, entertainment and fashion news. That's also where my favorite Gossip Girl recap is housed. I can almost always find things I love there. That's not even to mention the longer features and reporting.
I wandered over to fashion today, something I reserve for days when I extra want to look at pretty things, if I go there daily it doesn't seem as sparkly. The experts there have summarized spring fashion trends into 4 major standouts. I'm ahead of the trend on a couple of these. BOOM. Others, I'm not so sure about...
RED LIPS. These never go out of style in my book. I love red lips more than I love any other beauty item. I try to incorporate them as much as possible without looking like a total harlot. To me this is just an acknowledgment of what I already know to be awesome.
ORANGE. ("Whoever said orange is the new pink was seriously disturbed." -- Elle Woods.) I don't exactly agree with Elle on this one (although that's rare). I think orange is springy and fun. I loves it. See birthday dress from a few weeks ago. Dress doesn't quite upstage my friends' smiling faces, but you get the point.
'CIRCUS ON YOUR FEET' SHOES. Jigga what? Luis Vuitton is responsible. I'm confused about these. You have to admit, they have it all: feathers, gemstones, strings, straps, beads, snakeskin, platforms, suede. I'm sort of on sensory overload, and its just a visual experience. I'm going to give these two whole-hearted thumbs downs. Sorry Louis, I still love you.
I think I prefer these Louboutins. Isn't "let's pretend we can buy these" game fun?
SPACE PURSE. I may be distracted by the sparkle hand, but something about this Balenciaga bag just screams "clutch from the future to me." Don't know if I'm crazy about the irridescent-ness. Or that this is described as a "perfect expression of the genre."
I like this one better. Surprise, it's Kate Spade! Yellow is new for me. I'm trying to expand my palette. It's occurred to me lately that my closet is too purple-heavy. Shocker.
Happy fashion dreamland. Oh, how I love thee.

Sometimes (today) as soon as I wake up I'm in gloom central. Don't really know why. Deep at my core I'm a glass-half-empty person (which I'm aggressively working on, actually) and I think there are days when my real self can't help but surface. Today I'm grumpy about several things going slightly awry in my life. I need to just put on my big girl panties and take care of business, but whining about it on the internet is just so much easier. The Tuesday gloom is three fold:
The Prince is facing another damn ailment and I'm nearing my wits end. This time around, he seems to have sustained some sort of injury to the bottom of his paw and it is infected (or at least that's my own internet-research diagnosis). He is not in pain and surgery isn't imminent (but we've said that before) this time, but tomorrow I have to take off work, get him to the vet and pay for whatever exam/procedure/medication it takes to heal the paw in question. He's happy as he can be, but can't stop licking it and the thing looks pretty gruesome, so this must be addressed. I have no choice but to patiently and mercifully treat his little situation with all the mommy-like energy it requires, but I'm about out of juice for this whole business. 2010 has already been a banner year for the Prince. I'm over it. I love the little man so much and he is the most stable/permanent/dependable fixture in my life, so I'll be veterinary-ing tomorrow. Until then...pout.
I'm hitting a wall on my weigh loss endeavor. I'm so flipping frustrated with this whole can of worms too. I'm working on the diet (even the weeknight wine and afternoon chocolate fixes have been drastically reduced) and working out like a crazy lady. I've been gym-ing it as much as I can, to the tune of 4-5 times a week. This body ain't what it used to be and can't just bounce back from my bad choices. UGH. As the spring clothes are coming out I'm reminded more and more what a gluttonous idiot I acted like in the winter. I had an abysmal mid-month weigh in. I'm going to treat it like a fluke and try to press on. Double pout. (Update: a mega-nice friend has referred me to her boyfriend who is also a workout and nutrition expert. He's designed me a plan...and it's tough.)
I can't seem to get my finances in order. I'm working hard to be a conservative spender and really be responsible, but it seems like things keep coming up. This probably compounds all my other problems. More cash = less stress about Prince's medical issues. More cash = personal trainer. I'm really doing my best to keep my shopping and activities in check, but I just can't get ahead. Boo hiss. The real world really beats me down sometimes. Triple pout.
The perplexing thing about it all is I'm not sure how to heal myself. At other times when I'm afflicted with the pouts I engage in some retail therapy and eat sweet things. No can do this time around. I'm trying to find another way to lick my wounds and can't find a great solution that doesn't include spending or eating. This could be a personal growth opportunity and I could come out a stronger person...... but for today I have the pouts.
But, I am thankful for a lot of good things....like all of you blog friends!Tomorrow is a new day.

I've had another scrumptious weekend, and it's been hard not to think about how sucky Mondays are when you've had 2 super days sans office.
Saturday morning Manfriend and I did a 5K! I was extremely nervous going into it because I haven't run in nearly 3 weeks due to a hip injury. Yes, this is the sign that I am in fact becoming an old lady. Hip problems, what is the world coming to? I was expecting it to be painful, so I slammed a monster pain pill and just fought through it. I ended up running the whole time and finishing strong. My final time was 34:15. Not my best work, but I was proud nonetheless. The course ran through the Forth Worth Zoo and surrounding neighborhoods. We got to see rhinos, hippos, giraffes, elephants and flamingos! It was pretty neat. I spent most of the race about 10 feat behind Manfriend, which was extremely frustrating. I just couldn't seem to catch him:
We were happy finishers. If you can't tell, that is a fanny pack strapped to my waist. I love a fanny pack. I really can't get enough.
Saturday we went with some friends to a restaurant where they brew their own beers. Fun! The beers were delicious, although not all of them were for me. We ordered the sampler, so we could get a tast of all of them. The funniest part of the experience was the mini-glasses that the samples come in. Manfriend looked like the hulk sipping from the tiny cups. I even felt like a monser and I usually love miniature-ized things. His big paws on those things really brought me the LOLs.
Last night we headed out to Manfriend's parents house for some home cooking. It was delicious as usual, but one of my favorite aspects is that the Prince gets to play with some of his best buddies, Sugar (the white Shitzu Maltese) and Cooper (the brown Pomeranian). Cooper is a new addition to the family and Chuy is having a great time hazing him into the dog pack. The Prince was still exhausted this morning from the play. Hopefully he doesn't get hip problems too. Did I mention that I'm the next Dog Whisperer? Those precious puppies just couldn't get enough of me:
I don't blame them. It's a new week and I'm extra focused on skinny-izing myself. Hungry already, this is going to be tough.

Happy Friday everyone! Today has been weird and very un-friday. Nevertheless, this blog train ain't running of the track this time. Hope you all have great weekends, but before the fun commences, enjoy these very important headlines:
1.KFC has debuted the Double Down, which is a sandwich...of sorts. Instead of bread, you have two chicken breasts (Original Recipe or grilled) with bacon and cheese pressed between. Their web site boasts that the Original Recipe version is 540 calories and 32 grams of fat. Disgusting, but honestly was expecting much, much worse. I sort of want to try it. Is that wrong? I wasn't here for the glory, but one of my work buddies sampled the goodness. His report that it was "pretty tasty, but kind of disturbing. Disturbingly tasty."
2. Volcanoes have taken over most of Europe. Doesn't that sound fake? Well, it isn't. For the second day, airspace over the majority of the EU is in total lockdown because of a cloud of volcanic ash. The volcano erupted in Iceland, but the cloud has caused a total aeronautical clusterF in many places. Officials are saying this has been more disruptive to air travel than 9/11. In addition to low visibility, this ash in the air gets into plane engines and cause them to explode. There are also glass shards flying around. RIDICULOUS. Just when the Earth is boring me because space is so awesome, it goes and pulls one of these. (Watch this to for an explanation of this nuts situation.)
3.Quote of the Week:

"Like, I have a belief that if I wear my placenta in a necklace, there’s a possibility of me gaining second sight — like being psychic. ... For instance, I went yesterday to a past-life regressionist, and he told me that in my past life I was assassinated. I’m pretty sure that I was JFK in my past life." —Ke$ha to Interview

So where should we start on this one? The placenta necklace? The past-life regressionist? Or that whole JFK thing? I'm going to presume this comment wasn't serious, as there is no way that I can interpret it as a serious thing. Knowing Ke$ha though, she probably was high on all sorts of things when she had this thought and firmly believed it at the time. That's why she is a pop star and I'm not.
4.Dixie Carter passed away from cancer complications at the age of 70. She is most famous, and my only knowledge of her, for her role as Julia Sugarbaker on the gemstone that isDesigning Women. Julia owns an interior design firm run out of her home in Georgia. She is business with her is her spicy beauty queen sister (Delta Burke when she was skinny) and her two best buddies. The show is hilarious, and a shining testament to fireball southern women. One part glamour, one part feminism. Perfect. This show reminds me of my mother, she used to always watch(see the eighties-ness at right)...then I later caught it on TV Land (Wonder if my kids will be watching Gossip Girl there?). Anyway, bless Carter's debutante little heart. Here's a great clip of her in all her glory:
5.A British artist, Walter Raes, claims that he could make anything wearable. (Click here for a gallery of some other pieces in the collection) To prove his point, he's made a halter top out of tampons. TAMPONS! While I support an ambitious artistic endeavor as this, they are, and always will be, tampons. I giggled with my colleagues that I may need this little diddy, I am extremely prone to spilling on myself and I'd imagine it's quite absorbent.
6. The trailer for Sex and the City 2 has come out!
My initial reaction to this trailer is somewhat mixed. I will most definitely be going to see this. I feel like it's my duty as a woman and I was a faithful viewer back in the day. But, the road trip to Abu Dhabi leads me to believe they're running out of material in NYC. WHAT?!?!?! Also, they mysteriously run into Aiden in an Arabian outdoor marketplace? I have some questions. Either way. I can't wait! I'm already thinking of wrangling all the ladies together and make a night of it!
Have a fab 48 hours off of whatever it is you do the other parts of the week!